cannabisnews.com: War Against Drugs Turns to Classrooms, Homes!





War Against Drugs Turns to Classrooms, Homes!
Posted by FoM on January 16, 1999 at 11:57:14 PT

State and federal law enforcement officials say that cutting off the supply of illegal drugs may be impossible. So, they are trying harder to curb demand. 
Over the past five years, the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington has increased federal money for prevention by 33 percent and boosted the money for drug treatment by 38 percent. "That's really the heart and soul of what we're doing, combined with continuing stiff law enforcement," says Barry McCaffrey, director of the ONDCP. "We want to keep the social disapproval of drug abuse high." The office recently began a five-year, $2 billion antidrug ad campaign aimed at ages 9-19. If you can keep a kid in that age group from using marijuana, alcohol or tobacco, McCaffrey says, "he's home free. "He'll never have a compulsive drug-using problem." The drug policy board's strategy director, Jim McDonough, says that today, half of America's students have used drugs by the time they graduate from high school. "So we're not talking now about a college sophomore smoking a joint, we're talking about middle school children becoming exposed to dangerous drug abuse," McCaffrey says. "And, oh by the way, more eighth graders are using heroin in today's America than 12th graders." Sgt. William Davis of the Louisiana State Police spent several years doing drug interdiction along Interstates 10 and 20, two major drug pipelines that stretch across Louisiana. He remembers the frustration of knowing that so much dope was getting past him every day. According to federal figures, the U.S. federal government spends $17.1 billion a year to fight drugs. But the drug cartels are making an estimated $52 billion a year on drug sales in this country. "We don't have the resources to combat what the drug dealers put into their operations," Davis says. "So education is the biggest key right now. I think that's the best way that we in law enforcement can go." Davis, who now does public affairs work for the state police, touts efforts police are making to get into schools and teach. The same thing is happening in other states across the country: police are more proactive in keeping America's youth off drugs. But McCaffrey warns that it's a job the police can't do alone. "I tell people, you want to fight a war on drugs?" he says. "Sit down at your own kitchen table and talk to your children." 
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